Karl Howard: Real estate agent charged over alleged love triangle fight

A Sydney real estate agent currently on a good behaviour bond over a samurai sword attack has been charged over a late-night altercation which police say left a man and a woman with head and facial injuries and sparked a siege.

Karl Howard (right) at a previous court appearance. Picture: NCA Newswire

A Sydney real estate agent currently on a good behaviour bond over a samurai sword attack has been charged with multiple offences after a late-night altercation which left a man and a woman with head and facial injuries and sparked a siege.

Karl Adon Howard, 48, was arrested after the incident which police will allege was sparked by a love triangle, played out in a Rozelle unit complex on Sunday night.

The former Ray White Balmain principal is serving a 27-month intensive correction order and is banned from drugs and alcohol following the 2021 assault of two women inside his Annandale home. The order expires in February next year.

Police said they were called to Burt Street in Rozelle just before 11pm on Sunday after reports of an assault and multiple people screaming.

Police will allege Howard approached a 49-year-old woman and demanded her car keys before assaulting her.

Real estate agent Karl Howard is under police guard following the altercation. Picture: Supplied

A 55-year-old man, who intervened to help the woman, was also allegedly attacked.

Then at about 10.40pm, emergency services were called to a unit complex on Burt St in Rozelle, following reports of another assault.

Police will allege Howard assaulted a 40-year-old woman and a 39-year-old man, both known to him, inside a home.

The woman fled the unit but was allegedly attacked again on the street, while the man also left the unit before collapsing unconscious outside.

The unit in Burt Street, Rozelle, where the alleged incident took place. Picture: Rohan Kelly

Paramedics treated the woman for facial injuries and the 39-year-old man for head wounds, before transporting the pair to St Vincent’s Hospital.

After a brief stand-off with police, Howard was arrested and taken to Royal Prince Alfred Hospital under police guard, where he remained on Monday night.

“A 48-year-old man was arrested after police negotiated his exit from the unit,” NSW Police said in a statement.

Howard has now been charged with 11 offences, including assault with intent to take/drive a motor vehicle, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, common assault (four counts), affray (two counts), enter prescribed premises of any person without lawful excuse, aggravated break and enter and commit serious indictable offence – inflict actual bodily harm, intentionally choke a person without consent, assault occasioning actual bodily harm (DV), supply prohibited drug more than a small quantity and less than an indictable quantity and possess prohibited drug.

The unit in Rozelle. Picture: Rohan Kelly

Howard was refused bail and is set to appear at Downing Centre Local Court on Tuesday.

Residents at the unit complex told The Daily Telegraph they heard screaming and “smashing noises”.

“It was hard to tell what it was...next thing the street fills up with cops and ambos, so something was going on in there,” one neighbour said.

The front gate to the unit was wide open, showing a courtyard with multiple smashed garden pots. The sliding glass door had been dusted in by crime scene officers.

In November 2023, NSW District Court Judge Antony Townsden sentenced Howard to an intensive correction order and ordered him to perform 250 hours of community service after he pleaded guilty to assaulting two women in 2021. He was also banned from drugs and alcohol and must complete a domestic violence course.

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